multimedia journalist

earthquake

I still choke up every time I read about the kids that died in the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. I’ll remember the pictures of a girl impaled on rebar as screaming parents reached up to her … one of them balanced on crumbling concrete trying to reach her before she faded out. I’ll see the blood […]

Julia Zimmermann came to Chengdu and stayed with me for several days chronicling the earthquake there for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung — my favorite German-language newspaper. Here is her finished work, in German. The photos speak for themselves and if you click on the slideshow to your right, you will see more of the same […]

i just got back from Beichuan a few minutes ago. Beichuan was near the epicenter of the earthquake, so most of the villages in that area were destroyed or flooded. I met groups of people from Xuan Ping — a village near Beichuan that was flooded — scattered throughout the disaster area. One man was […]

today … bout three minutes ago, a large aftershock shook chengdu. the largest in a long time, maybe since the original quake. and it lasted for about one minute. here things rattled and my heart raced, but nothing damaging happened. but if it was this heavy here, then up north people died. and who knows […]

We went to Luo Shui today, about 20 of us in several cars and trucks loaded with toys, paints, candy and other goodies for the surviving schoolchildren of Luo Shui town. We went to four different schools and each school had lost kids during the quake. The kids loved and we had a blast. My […]

Wass happenin ya’ll? Its been an easy few days recently. My cats are in heat again so the dirty toms are serenading us all from the backyard. Big Tenz had a rough day of chess yesterday hehehehe … he brought his projector to the Farm and we have been enjoying wide-screen Planet Earth sessions. The […]

Patriotism at the expense of another nation is as wicked as racism at the expense of another race…Let us resolve to be patriots always, nationalists never.– Rev. William Sloane Coffin Today at 2:28pm, the entire Chinese nation stood at attention for three minutes to remember the victims of the Sichuan Earthquake. Today’s edition of the […]

A Poem by an anonymous Chinese circling the web(translated): Children quickquickHold fast to Mother’s handThe Road to HeavenIs so darkMom is afraidyou’ll hit your headQuickHold fast to Mother’s handHave Mom walk with you momI’m afraidThe road to heaven is so darkI cant see your handSince the walls felland stole away the sunI haven’t been able […]

First off: Blogger is blocked in China, so people cannot see it here, I cannot comment back to any of you and i do use a proxy. There is so much to tell … I drove from Chengdu up north to a place called Hanwang today, through the towns of Shifang and Mianzhu. Shifang was […]

President Hu Jintao made it to Dujiangyan today and shook hands with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao… Today I took a ride with a civil engineer and a security and infrastructure assessment expert around the northwest suburbs of Chengdu. We visited Chongzhou, Qingcheng Mountain and the outskirts of Dujiangyan. The purpose of the trip was to […]

Tomorrow we will try and head up to see if we can help. THe local authorities and Red Cross have designated the Bookworm and Cafe Paname as two foreign est. where supplies can be dropped off and from which teams might be able to head up and help. Earlier today, a group of Brits trapped […]

Well Chengdu is basically back to normal. My friend Charlie’s harrowing experience is all over the web now — here is the AP story, which also has the video. You can check out the text here. We’ll be heading up north tomorrow in a caravan filled with goodies. It will probably only be a daytrip […]

Well the tremors have picked up now and rumors are rife about another large earthquake. But rumors have been flying all day about no water, polluted water, airport open then closed and so on. its safe out in my little farmhouse and I got a crew out there and some kitties to look after. Charlie’s […]

Here is a story I wrote that didn’t find space … its a time-pegged story which means I can probably not publish it anywhere else. So here you are, a look at what was happening in the Du the day after:In Chengdu a slight drizzle coats thousands of people who have taken to the streets […]

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s speech is looped on TV and radio and seems to have an effect. One line that inspired was: “Even if there is only a sliver of hope, we will increase our efforts 100-fold to save those people” Rumors are out now about the water. Water is turned off in Chengdu […]

I want to first reply to those who have commented about Qing Cheng Mountain: If anyone has ever been there you may remember the very large gate that leads from the parking lot into the actual temples area? That gate is gone. All of the small bed and breakfast inns along the road up the […]

On the day of the earthquake in Sichuan Province, Charlie, Ramone and John met at the Shamrock Bar and Grill in Chengdu at 7am and left on motorbikes for a tour of Qing Cheng Mountain. Qing Cheng mountain is one of the most famous Daoist sites in China, covered in temples, pagodas and tea houses. […]

My friend Rachel wrote the day before the quake: “I feel like the world is shifting” if ya’ll check the first few lines of my post “The Illusion of Coincidence” you’ll see that there was something in the air … just to embellish a bit: yesterday was Buddha’s birthday. The plates that caused this earthquake […]

There is a tremor going on as i write — has been shaking my building for the past three minutes. still shaking. had tremors all night and all morning and the news has been getting worse every hour. Chengdu seems ot be ok for now, but north of here it is real bad. Chinese Prime […]

Well now that i feel i have done my part cross-referencing links and straining at Chinese characters its time to write lil something for my people. Its gonna be scary tonight for sure.. there was a tremor just now at 939pm and it last till 942. it wasn’t strong but if any of you have […]

Thousands dead and injured in Beichuan county — the TV is not reporting any of this, getting it off of Xinhua news. All media is locked into the “central brain” local TV is reporting on the “man in the street” and constant quotes on how people felt, where they ran too … Update: Here is […]

The tv news just reported 107 deaths and 648 injuries. They also say that gas is tough to come by — some people have been waiting for 3 or more hours for gas. the death toll is rising as the news report goes on — 4 people dead in Aba5 people in Leshan20 or more […]

Rumors are spreading fast throughout the city that there will be another large earthquake this evening at 830pm … this has not been confirmed by anyone in the scientific world. from Shanghaiist:“Intrigue. There were rumours of a “huge impending earthquake” but concerned villagers in the Matang Village of the Maerkang County were told by the […]

The death toll is rising — so far it is up to 107 and the schoolchildren in Dujiangyan are not completely accounted for. The countryside around Chengdu a=has taken a big hit, with houses in Leshan, Guanghan and Guanyuan collapsing. The damage will be most extensive north of Dujiangyan — that area was also the […]